Mark Lewis Taylor, the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary calls for the immediate release of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Writes the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Theology and Culture:

The redress for Abu-Jamal's 30 years of anguish and the "cruel and unusual punishment" he has suffered is not life in prison without parole. It is release from prison into the arms of family and friends, into spaces of support and life.

The real Maxwell M. Upson was an engineer, a graduate of Cornell University and a winner of the Edward Longstreth medal from the Franklin Institute for his contribution to science and the industrial arts. He holds several patents for retention and seawall design. Sounds like a pretty sensible fellow. Makes you wonder if he would enjoy having his name associated with a radical political movement to free a cop killer.

The seminary is apparently looking for a new Maxwell M. Upson Professor. Here's hoping they find one who is not such a useless idiot.

UPDATE: Debra Saunders writes:

The worst of it is that it doesn't matter if juries found defendants guilty of capital murder. It doesn't matter if voters approved their state's death penalty law. It doesn't matter if the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld states' capital punishment protocols. As long as there are judges and politicians willing to undermine the appellate process, capital punishment opponents don't have to win at the ballot or in front of the nation's top court to beat the death penalty.

Read it all here.

UPDATE II: From the comments: Steve McDonald asks if we have seen Tigre Hill's documentary "Barrel of a Gun." No, but here's the trailer.